Integrity of Creation

Sometimes it is hard to accept that there is integrity in absolutely all of creation. Some parts of creation are just a bit...um... nastier than others. Case in point is the Voodoo Lilly. Ellen Zepp is growing some and enjoys them enough to share them with others. That is where the story gets interesting.

First, here are some facts about this particular Voodoo Lilly, the Amorphophallus konjac:

• fly pollinated
• member of the arum family (relatives of the calla lily, jack-in-the-pulpit, skunk cabbage, philodendron)
• comes from China and Vietnam
• blossom on a brown lumpy tuber
• blossom spikes grow visibly (inches) each day
• single leaf that grows after the blossom dies back is strikingly beautiful and looks like a small palm tree
• though arums are generally toxic, some are edible - Amorphophallus konjac a commercial source of glucomannan
• the blossom SMELLS!!!!!!!!
  

It is on that last point that the sharing becomes interesting. Here are some descriptive terms applied to the smell recently by some children:

• "Stinky!"
• "Nasty!"
• "Disgusting!"
• "Putrid!"
• "I want to puke!"
• "Smells like a long-dead zebra!"
• "Evil!"
  

The first six observatons are true enough (although one must wonder where the child had smelled a long-dead zebra!), but the last one raised Ellen's hackles, and rightfully so. Is there truly anything in all of creation that is evil? One of the more dangerous pieces of rhetoric these days is to refer to the terroists and those who won't join in "our" fight against them as evil. You would have to search long and hard to find a theologian who would tell you that the line between good and evil runs between nations, or even individuals. No the line that divides good from evil is a thin one that runs through every human heart!

So, the poor smelly Voodoo Lilly is anything but evil. In fact, at least one creature thinks it is pretty darned good. Check out this picture of a frog calling it home sweet home!